Fort George (Guernsey)

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Fort George
Detail of Fort George

Detail of Fort George

Creation time : 1780-1812
Castle type : Coastal fort
Conservation status: partially restored
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Saint Peter Port
Geographical location 49 ° 26 '42.8 "  N , 2 ° 32' 12.7"  W Coordinates: 49 ° 26 '42.8 "  N , 2 ° 32' 12.7"  W.
Height: 84  m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference
Fort George (Channel Islands)
Fort George

Fort George is the ruin of a fort in Saint Peter Port on the Channel Island of Guernsey . The fort was a military headquarters built on the island and served to protect the barracks for the garrison of the British Army . It took over the duties of Castle Cornet .

The fort was planned in the Anglo-French War 1778–1783. Construction began in 1780 and was completed in 1812. It was built to accommodate the additional troops stationed on the island in anticipation of a French invasion such as that attempted in Jersey in 1779 and carried out in January 1781.

Plaques above the entrance to Fort George

history

The area on which the fort was built was previously covered with excellent grain fields, but when 1½ regiments were relocated to the island for defense after the start of the American War of Independence , it was already used by the military before the construction of today's fort. In 1775 and 1776, an epidemic among the Highland soldiers on the fort's site decimated the unit and the disease spread among civilians in neighboring parishes. The old fort was in disrepair and General Charles Gray, 1st Earl Gray , 1797-1807 Governor of Guernsey, had difficulty persuading the island to expand its defenses. In 1798, in his desperation, he ordered the demolition of the partially completed fort so that it could not serve as a safe haven for possible invaders. It was not destroyed, however, and construction work continued.

Fort George was planned as a star-shaped fort, the outline of which was provided with bastions . It was connected to a separate redoubt , Fort Irwin . The Clarence Battery was built on the lake side .

On March 27, 1783, 500 regular soldiers mutinied on Guernsey, mostly Irish soldiers who had recently formed the 104th Regiment and were in winter quarters on Fort George. This was possibly caused by some discharged men from the recently disbanded 83rd Regiment who had just been sent to join the 104th Regiment on the island. The soldiers demanded that the fort's gates be left open so that they could come and go as they pleased. But although it was agreed, a few days later the soldiers in the fort fired at their officers and forced them to withdraw from the fort. Both the 18th Regiment (Royal Irish) and the Royal Militia of Guernsey were used against them with six cannons. Bullets were fired at the rebels until they surrendered. The Guernsey government publicly thanked the 18th Regiment and the Militia and paid them 100 guineas . Two men were wounded, 36 ringleaders imprisoned and the 104th regiment disbanded.

View of Fort George from the preserved Clarence Battery. Luxurious homes, some of which can be seen above the battery, have replaced most of the old fort.

From 1794 to 1819 a company of a handicapped battalion of the Royal Artillery was stationed on Fort George. The dueling was banned in Guernsey, but was held still. One of the most famous duels took place in 1795 between two officers stationed at the fort on L'Hyvreuse Avenue in St Peter Port, with Major Byng of the 92nd Regiment ( Gordon Highlanders ) dying after demanding the regimental doctor for an honorary deal because he was with the National anthem had not gotten up. Before the barracks were built in the fort, islanders were requisitioned to billet soldiers who could not be accommodated in Castle Cornet. Each community had its quota and, if the soldiers were housed in public buildings or private apartments, they had to pay for the costs.

Lieutenant General John Doyle was appointed lieutenant governor of Guernsey and commander of all forces on Guernsey in 1803. After he declared a state of emergency in 1804, he had a lot of work carried out to increase the island's defense readiness, e.g. B. the draining of the Braye du Valle , the renovation of several roads according to military standards and the construction of forts and batteries on the entire coast of the island. The construction of Fort George advanced faster when Lieutenant Colonel John Mackelcan (allegedly the illegitimate son of King George III and Hannah Lightfoot ) was promoted to command of the Royal Engineers at the fort in 1803 . In 1812 the fort was completed and Lieutenant General John Doyle became its commander.

The families of the soldiers stationed in the fort usually lived in St Peter Port. In 1832 William Turner sketched the fort. The last delinquent to be executed for murder in Guernsey in 1853, a certain "John Tapner", worked as an employee in the engineering department of Fort George. The fort attracted dubious activity: "Maisons de Debauche" were established nearby. They became so much of a problem that a law was passed in 1895 to restrict their activities; this was not sufficient and so another law was passed in 1912 that allowed the "ladies" to be examined for illnesses, to be hospitalized if necessary, and foreign "ladies" to be deported if they were called "dangereuses pour la santé publique ”(dt .: dangerous for public health).

The Royal Guernsey Light Infantry trained at Fort George before the 1st Battalion was transferred to the Western Front on June 1, 1917 . The 2nd Battalion remained at the fort as a training battalion.

During the Second World War , the fort was captured by German troops who renamed it "Base Georgefest" and built a number of gun platforms and a radar early warning station for the German Air Force with two Freya radio measuring devices and two giant Würzburg Riese radio measuring devices . Attempts by the Allies to bomb this radar station before landing in Normandy in June 1944 were unsuccessful; Allied aircraft were shot down on June 2nd and 5th. Unexploded bombs occasionally come to light.

The States of Guernsey bought the land from the British Crown in 1958. In 1967 this land was sold to a developer, Fort George Development, with the aim of building 120 luxury houses there between the more solid military buildings; the main barracks were to be demolished. Objections to the planned development were rejected, although 21 percent of the population had signed a petition against this construction work.

description

Clarence Battery on Fort George

Main gate

The main entrance to the fort is through an imposing doorway in which the original wooden gate leaves are still attached. Behind the gate there used to be a moat and drawbridge that formed a second line of defense.

A plaque above the gate relates to Major-General Sir John Doyle, Bt., GCB, KC and Lieutenant Govenor of Guernsey from 1803 to 1816 and Commanding Officer in 1812.

Armament

In 1833 the fort was equipped with 34 cannons, a carronade and four mortars . It was supported by several, nearby, strong batteries. Skewers, muskets and swords were stored in the armory .

Clarence Battery

When this battery was built in 1780, it was called "Terres Point Battery", but was built in 1815 in honor of the third son of King George III. , Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Clarence , renamed. Ten cannons enabled the battery to fire in two different directions; a magazine and a guard room were also built. The original cannons were later replaced by 5 ”cannons, and a 3.7 cm anti-aircraft gun was installed during the occupation .

graveyard

A military cemetery was established where British soldiers and sailors from the 19th and 20th centuries were buried. This is also the final resting place of 111 German soldiers and sailors. The cemetery belongs to the Ministry of War and contains graves from both world wars. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists all 136 military graves in the cemetery, regardless of the nationality of those buried there.

The Fort George garrison chaplain made a register of all baptisms and burials in the years 1794-1810, which can now be found in the island's archives.

Access and current use

The fort's site is open to the public, but most of the site is now privately owned. Most of the smaller structures were demolished and the rest were integrated into houses. The original main gate has been completely preserved and forms the entrance to the site. At Belvedere Field and the cemetery there is parking.

You can walk from the Valette bathing areas to the aquarium, which is built into a tunnel under the fort. Then you can climb up the steps to Clarence Battery , from where you have access to the fort and the cemetery.

The main road from St Peter Port to the fort is Le Val des Terres ; it was opened in 1935 to King Edward VIII , Le Prince des Galles . Before that, the driveway was on George Road .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Duncan: The Guernsey and Jersey Magazine . Issues 3 + 4 (1837). P. 233.
  2. ^ Gregory Stevens-Cox: St Peter Port, 1680-1830: The History of an International Entrepôt . Boydell Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-85115-758-0 .
  3. ^ Paul David Nelson: Sir Charles Gray, First Earl Gray: Royal Soldier, Family Patriarch . Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8386-3673-2 . P. 194.
  4. ^ Charles Stephenson: The Channel Islands 1941-1945, Hitler's impregnable fortress . Osprey, 2006. ISBN 1-84176-921-5 . .S. 5.
  5. ^ Raoul Lemprière: History of the Channel Islands . Robert Hale. ISBN 978-0-7091-4252-2 . P. 132.
  6. ↑ Jonathan Duncan: The History of Guernsey with Occasional Notices of Jersey, Alderney and Sark (...) . Longman, 1841.
  7. ^ British Artillery Battalions and the Men Who Led Them 1793-1815 . Napoleon Series. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  8. ↑ Major Byng . Priaulx Library. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  9. ↑ Amanda Bennett: Secret Guernsey . Amberley Publishing, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4456-4319-9 .
  10. ^ Rose-Marie Crossan: Poverty and Welfare in Guernsey, 1560-2015 . Boydell Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-78327-040-8 . P. 59.
  11. ↑ General Sir John Doyle . BBC. March 24, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  12. ^ British Artillery Battalions and the Men Who Led Them 1793-1815 . Napoleon Series. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  13. ^ Castle Cornet; Fort George, Guernsey - 1832 . Tate. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  14. ↑ Gynis Cooper: foul deeds and suspicious deaths in Guernsey . Wharncliffe Books, 2006. ISBN 978-1-84563-008-9 . P. 25.
  15. ^ Rose-Marie Crossan: Guernsey, 1814-1914: Migration in a modernizing Society .
  16. ^ A b Two hundred years of protection at Guernsey fort . BBC. June 11, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  17. ↑ Police Bomb Disposal Unit . Guernsey Police. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  18. ^ The Fort George overture . Guernsey Press. September 6, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  19. ^ JE Collins: The Strangers' Guide to the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey . 1833.
  20. ^ Clarence Battery . Guernsey Museum. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  21. ^ War and peace on Guernsey . The Telegraph. July 29, 2014. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  22. ↑ Val des Terres stone . BBC. Retrieved April 5, 2018.

literature

  • Peter Johnston: The Building of Fort George Citadel 1779–1782 . Part I. Guernsey Society, Fall 2000.

Web links

Commons : Fort George  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files